Mrs. Clifford called to cancel the house’s cable service, as one might to if your house might explode. But she hit a snag when Comcast told her she would have to return her cable box. How could she do that if she couldn’t even get to her house?

A Comcast employee and a supervisor offered their sympathies, but insisted that she would have to return the box. It was company policy after all and no company policy could be trumped by any natural disaster.

Comcast issued an apology:

We have already reached out to apologize for adding to his parents’ difficulties and to ask for his parents’ contact information so we can call to personally apologize and assure them that we are handling the equipment without the need for them to do anything further. Please know we are working with our teams to ensure we handle all customer calls on a case-by-case basis with sensitivity to the devastating effects Hurricane Sandy had on so many of our local communities and residents. Again, we are of course notating his parents account to ensure they are not charged for equipment they can’t return.